Happy Homecomings

"I want to see how things go with the video. If it doesn't blow up in our faces, I'd be willing to talk about another time," he says.

She responds with, "I think when we look at the video, we're going to want another time real bad."

Ray chuckles.

Amber's face takes on a doubtful look. "Are we being presumptuous? Just assuming Hue Lan and Clement would want to swing with a couple of old folks like us?"

This time, Ray laughs out loud and Amber drops her straight face and joins him.

"Seriously, though," Amber says when they get their breaths back. "Do you think you would be okay with me and Clem?" She holds up her hand. "I know, it's not a fair question out of the blue like that. I'll answer first. I think I'd be okay with you and Hue Lan because I know it really would be about sex and friendship, not sex and love. And more than once over the weekend I pictured you taking her, and it made me hot."

"I mostly imagined you in a spit-roast," he says. "And it definitely made me hot."

"And you think we really have to wait? They would never say who made the video with them. If it ever even became an issue." She looks back toward shore and he can see she's considering if the delay in their departure is a sign that they should skip Venice and stay with the young libertines.

He drains his coffee cup. "No, it's not really that. I just think we have to wait and give ourselves some time apart, so that we're not drunk on them when we decide if we're really going to cross that line."

"You're no fun," she pouts. Then she slides closer on the bench and snuggles up against his side. "Drunk on them, I like that, it really does describe how I've been feeling. And of course, you're right. Thanks for taking such good care of your drunken wife." She turns her face up to him and he kisses her.

The kiss is broken by the sudden lurch of the ferry as it begins to pull away from the dock. The time for abandoning ship, and their monogamy, has passed.

As they look out at the sea ahead, Ray hugs his wife tighter. "This weekend has been a lot of fun, hasn't it?"

"It has," she agrees.

"Hell," he says, "the whole homecoming has been unbelievable."

"Well, nothing's too good for America's heroes," she says before going back for another kiss.